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50 Beaches to Blow Your Mind
Lonely Planet and Ben Handicott
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Lonely Planet Normandy and D-Day Beaches Road Trips
Lonely Planet, Stuart Butler, Oliver Berry and Jean-Bernard Carillet
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Discover the freedom of open roads with...
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated Siren in Books
Mar 15, 2018
Read my review here: https://bookbumzuky.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/review-siren-by-annemarie-neary/
<b><i>Dont play the hero, Roisin. Make sure you have your back covered. But when the moments right, make your move.</i></b>
This is a bit different to the sorts of thrillers Im used to reading. With a lean towards politics, this feels a little more highbrow than the normal the-boyfriend-did-it kind of books Im used to. I dont know anything about about the Northern Ireland Troubles, so it was interesting to get a glimpse into the history of it in this novel.
I liked our characters in this novel. It was nice to have someone like Boyle in this. Homeless, stinky and a bit of a pervert, yet still kind of likable. Though I felt like his story wasnt told all that well. Roisin was a well built out character and Neary was really good at making us empathise with her the whole way through.
The plot, overall, was good. As some other reviewers have stated, the thrill subsides a little bit towards the middle and end, but I was still interested in knowing what was going to happen to really take much notice at the slowing pace. When were flashbacked to Roisins past, I was initially interested, but then things got a little drawn out. I felt like that section of the novel could have easily been shortened so we could have gotten back to the current day situation and learnt a bit more about Boyle and the Dutchman, but, hey.
One of my issues with this novel was the situation between Roisin and The Dutchman. Considering she was so wary of everything and kept completely to herself, it didnt make much sense to me, that she let herself get so close to The Dutchman and so quickly. That part of the story felt very inaccurate to how it would have really played out, had this been a true story.
The writing in this novel is well done, with good descriptive imagery, believable dialogue and well developed characters. There are quite a number of Irish terms used that Im not used to, but theyre easy to get. A thing not so well done in this novel was the layout. Within each chapter, we are presented with several POVs that arent very well separated. The only suggestion that our character perspective has changed is a paragraph break, but then sometimes there are paragraph breaks that will carry on with the same character as before. Im hoping its only this confusing as Ive received an ARC copy from Netgalley, because if not, its a major flaw in the editing.
Im a bit miffed at the ending, to be honest. It seemed abrupt and it was unsatisfying after all we went through with Roisin and her story.
<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>
<b><i>Dont play the hero, Roisin. Make sure you have your back covered. But when the moments right, make your move.</i></b>
This is a bit different to the sorts of thrillers Im used to reading. With a lean towards politics, this feels a little more highbrow than the normal the-boyfriend-did-it kind of books Im used to. I dont know anything about about the Northern Ireland Troubles, so it was interesting to get a glimpse into the history of it in this novel.
I liked our characters in this novel. It was nice to have someone like Boyle in this. Homeless, stinky and a bit of a pervert, yet still kind of likable. Though I felt like his story wasnt told all that well. Roisin was a well built out character and Neary was really good at making us empathise with her the whole way through.
The plot, overall, was good. As some other reviewers have stated, the thrill subsides a little bit towards the middle and end, but I was still interested in knowing what was going to happen to really take much notice at the slowing pace. When were flashbacked to Roisins past, I was initially interested, but then things got a little drawn out. I felt like that section of the novel could have easily been shortened so we could have gotten back to the current day situation and learnt a bit more about Boyle and the Dutchman, but, hey.
One of my issues with this novel was the situation between Roisin and The Dutchman. Considering she was so wary of everything and kept completely to herself, it didnt make much sense to me, that she let herself get so close to The Dutchman and so quickly. That part of the story felt very inaccurate to how it would have really played out, had this been a true story.
The writing in this novel is well done, with good descriptive imagery, believable dialogue and well developed characters. There are quite a number of Irish terms used that Im not used to, but theyre easy to get. A thing not so well done in this novel was the layout. Within each chapter, we are presented with several POVs that arent very well separated. The only suggestion that our character perspective has changed is a paragraph break, but then sometimes there are paragraph breaks that will carry on with the same character as before. Im hoping its only this confusing as Ive received an ARC copy from Netgalley, because if not, its a major flaw in the editing.
Im a bit miffed at the ending, to be honest. It seemed abrupt and it was unsatisfying after all we went through with Roisin and her story.
<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>
Lonely Planet Pacific Coast Highways Road Trips
Lonely Planet, Sara Benson, Andrew Bender and Alison Bing
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David McK (3425 KP) rated Blood's Game in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Like, I'm sure, many others, my first exposure to the writings of [a:Angus Donald|584064|Angus Donald|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] was when I picked up [b:Outlaw|6624899|Outlaw (The Outlaw Chronicles, #1)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347668868s/6624899.jpg|6819139] on sale: a novel which reimagined the familiar character of Robin Hood, and which I thoroughly enjoyed: so much so that I made it a point to pick up all the novels in that series ([b:Outlaw|6624899|Outlaw (The Outlaw Chronicles, #1)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347668868s/6624899.jpg|6819139], [b:Holy Warrior|7710240|Holy Warrior (The Outlaw Chronicles, #2)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327539941s/7710240.jpg|10428506], [b:King's Man|11351795|King's Man (The Outlaw Chronicles, #3)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328436464s/11351795.jpg|16281574], [b:Warlord|13077584|Warlord (The Outlaw Chronicles, #4)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1342984405s/13077584.jpg|18244685], [b:Grail Knight|20613734|Grail Knight (The Outlaw Chronicles #5)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410172817s/20613734.jpg|21976159], [b:The Iron Castle|19857964|The Iron Castle (Outlaw Chronicles, #6)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402550564s/19857964.jpg|27860558] and (finally) [b:The Death of Robin Hood|29348050|The Death of Robin Hood (The Outlaw Chronicles, #8)|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467543641s/29348050.jpg|49585935]).
This, however, would be the first time I had read one of Donald's novels that concerned a different central character, and that had a different setting: would it, I wondered, be more of the same, or would it have it's own 'feel'?
The answer, I can now say, is the latter.
Replacing Alan-a-Dale with Holcroft Blood, and told in the more traditional her-and-know third-person narrative (instead of the conceit of an elderly Alan recalling his youthful adventures with Robin Hood), this particular novel deals with the (attempted) theft of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of England during the reign of King Charles II, not long after the restoration.
While that (attempted) theft is carried out by Thomas Blood - who was caught red-handed but later, incredibly, was granted a pardon by Charles II - this novel does not have Thomas as the central character: rather, instead, we follow the fortunes of his youngest son Holcroft: a son who, throughout the course of this novel, becomes friends with Sir John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough (and Winston Churchill's direct descendant).
Whether true or not, young Holcroft is portrayed in this as suffering from a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome, able to easily code and decode correspondence sent to his master The Duke of Buckingham from his various spies and informants: a skill that comes in handy in this tale! I have to say, too, that the court of King Charles II comes across as incredibly decadent, full of scheming and back-stabbing rivals out wholly for themselves ...
I'd be interested in seeing where this series goes, especially as the next entry ([b:Blood's Revolution|36146468|Blood's Revolution|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504033386s/36146468.jpg|57749834]) concerns itself - at least, according to the blurb at the back of this - with what is (in this country - Northern Ireland - at least) a very divisive and pivotal moment in English history.
This, however, would be the first time I had read one of Donald's novels that concerned a different central character, and that had a different setting: would it, I wondered, be more of the same, or would it have it's own 'feel'?
The answer, I can now say, is the latter.
Replacing Alan-a-Dale with Holcroft Blood, and told in the more traditional her-and-know third-person narrative (instead of the conceit of an elderly Alan recalling his youthful adventures with Robin Hood), this particular novel deals with the (attempted) theft of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of England during the reign of King Charles II, not long after the restoration.
While that (attempted) theft is carried out by Thomas Blood - who was caught red-handed but later, incredibly, was granted a pardon by Charles II - this novel does not have Thomas as the central character: rather, instead, we follow the fortunes of his youngest son Holcroft: a son who, throughout the course of this novel, becomes friends with Sir John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough (and Winston Churchill's direct descendant).
Whether true or not, young Holcroft is portrayed in this as suffering from a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome, able to easily code and decode correspondence sent to his master The Duke of Buckingham from his various spies and informants: a skill that comes in handy in this tale! I have to say, too, that the court of King Charles II comes across as incredibly decadent, full of scheming and back-stabbing rivals out wholly for themselves ...
I'd be interested in seeing where this series goes, especially as the next entry ([b:Blood's Revolution|36146468|Blood's Revolution|Angus Donald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504033386s/36146468.jpg|57749834]) concerns itself - at least, according to the blurb at the back of this - with what is (in this country - Northern Ireland - at least) a very divisive and pivotal moment in English history.